587: Electric Forest, IRL friend intros, and the oldest customer complaint ever
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I’m back from Electric Forest in Michigan, a festival that takes place in a forest. This means there are plenty of vibey trees to hang hammocks on, sudden rain and windstorms, and most of all, friendly Midwestern ravers who give you dancing space.
I was struck by how different of a vibe this is than my dry California festivals, where people are more physically attractive, but pushy. And getting evacuated from the main stage due to sudden pouring rain is a festival experience I hadn’t had yet.
Technology
Ami tracks your location and alerts you when friends of friends are nearby, allowing access to second degree connections IRL. It’s invite only but I can invite you.
Margins is trying to be the next Goodreads with AI book reccs and a better way of showing what you’re read. There is definitely something here because updating one’s Goodreads is a chore but browsing friend’s reads is a godsend.
Polis is a way to ask the general public what they think quickly and accurately that has a lot of press coverage and users in high governmental places. Hopefully we’ve come a long way from focus groups, and this would be the way to do it.
Ideologies
This complaint tablet to Ea Nasir for selling poor quality copper is the world’s oldest customer complaint, in Ur from 1750 BC. Fun to see how little such text has changed over the millennia.
Memes
Levity’s bass music set from last year at the Honeycomb stage gives you a sense of the unique wooded ambiance of Electric Forest: